Hair styling compositions are well known and include compositions formulated for and intended for application as shampoos, hairsprays, aerosol mousses, and other formulations known for use in delivering hair styling polymers to the hair. These compositions are typically applied to wet or dry hair, depending on the formulation, and allowed to form thin hair styling films or welds to the applied surface.
Hair styling compositions are commonly formulated as hairsprays intended for application to dry, positioned or styled hair to maintain or hold the position of such dry, styled hair. These hairsprays are typically applied to the hair as pump sprays or from pressurized aerosol canisters.
Such compositions provide temporary setting benefits to dry, styled hair and can usually be removed by water or by the next shampooing. The hair styling materials used in hairspray compositions are generally in the form of resins, gums, and adhesive polymers.
Many hairsprays, however, tend to deposit hair styling material on the hair that leaves the hair either excessively stiff or excessively sticky after the material has been applied to the hair and allowed to dry. Excessively stiff hairsprays are brittle and break down under common stresses such as wind, brushing, combing, and often feel or look unnatural. On the other extreme, excessively sticky hairsprays are more flexible under stress and are not excessively brittle, but leave the hair with a heavy, coated feel and a limp appearance as the hair droops and does not readily maintain or hold the intended style of the hair. These excessively sticky hairsprays also cause the hair to quickly become soiled from dust, dirt, lint, sebum, and other common contaminants that more readily adhere to the sticky hairsprays.
Some hairsprays have been formulated which can be applied to clean, dry hair to maintain or hold the desired hair style, and which are neither excessively stiff or sticky after application. However, many of these hairsprays still cause the hair to droop excessively immediately after application to the dry, styled or positioned hair. The applied hairspray then solidifies on the hair, and then retains the drooped or otherwise limper position of the hair caused by the initial application of the hairspray.
It has now been found that the hairspray compositions of the present invention are especially effective in providing hair styling performance when applied to dry, styled or positioned hair, without causing the hair to be excessively stiff or sticky and without causing the hair to excessively droop immediately after application. These hairspray compositions comprise select silicone-containing adhesive copolymers in combination with an alcohol solvent, wherein the composition contains at least about 50% by weight of the alcohol solvent. The hairspray compositions when dried preferably have a cohesive strength of greater than about 0.5 kgf/mm.sup.2, a total energy absorption per unit volume of greater than about 0.55 kgfmm/mm.sup.3, and an impact strength of greater than about 7000 ergs.
It has also been found that the preferred hair spray compositions of the present invention have an improved removeability from hair during shampooing, wherein the removeability is defined in terms of hair stiffness and hair flaking values ranging from 0 to about 3.5 (0 to 4 scale) These hair stiffness and flaking values are indirect measures of hair spray removeability. Each of these values are determined in accordance with the methodology defined herein.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide hairspray compositions that are neither excessively sticky nor excessively stiff after application, and further to provide such a composition that causes minimal or no drooping of dry, styled or positioned hair after application, and further to provide a hairspray composition having an improved removeability as defined herein.
It is yet another object of the present invention to provide such a composition which comprises select silicone-containing block polymers in combination with high concentrations of an alcohol solvent, and further to provide a method of styling dry, styled or positioned hair without causing excessive drooping of the dry hair immediately after application and without causing the hair to feel excessively stiff or sticky.